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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIn an effort to encourage members of the public to hire professional legal assistance rather than tackling their legal issues alone, the Indiana State Bar Association has launched a new electronic attorney directory, known as “You Need a Lawyer: ISBA Directory.”
Because many consumers now search for legal representation through the internet, “You Need a Lawyer: ISBA Directory,” is meant to be a tool that will point potential clients toward attorneys in their geographic area who work in the practice area most relevant to their legal needs. The directory will be populated through the ISBA membership database, and attorneys will be able to expand their profile to provide specific information about their practices.
“Changes in the legal profession due to companies like LegalZoom and Avvo are simply inevitable, and it’s in the public’s best interests for lawyers to embrace this revved-up ISBA directory, providing an invaluable go-to resource for finding a lawyer,” ISBA President Mitch Heppenheimer said in a statement Thursday. “As lawyers, we speak a language – legalese – that not everyone speaks and the more we can make ourselves available to those in need of help, the better.”
The launch of “You Need a Lawyer: ISBA Directory” will occur in two phases. First, ISBA members will be encouraged to expand their profiles with information about their practice areas. The bar association said its directory will be more trustworthy for customers than other online legal services, such as Avvo, because the information about the attorneys is not scraped from the web, and lawyers cannot pay in order to make their names come up higher in search results. Instead, search results will be based on relevance and geographic area.
The second phase of the launch will promote the benefits and value of the directory to customers. Aside from honest searches, the bar said the directory will be beneficial because it does not allow for peer-to-peer reviews and because it is tailored to Indiana’s legal ethics rules.
“You Need a Lawyer: ISBA Directory” is available through the ISBA website, www.inbar.org and through www.zeekbeek.com/inbar.
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